Judgment on a Gray Beach

By Larry Litt.
March 7, 2015.

“Judgment
on a Gray Beach ” is one of the most visually striking theater pieces I’ve seen
in a long time. We’re presented with highly sophisticated absurdist humor
combined with wink and nod Kafkaesque literary references.“Judgment on a Gray Beach”
Developed and directed by Elia Schneider
La Mama ETC, Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East Fourth St, NYCMarch 6-15, 2015
Reviewed March 7, 2015 by Larry Litt

The majority of my deeply focused
attention was spent in awe watching a mostly mimed play by actors in highly
regimented direction playing out an all too common dance of doom. Director Elia
Schneider captures Kafka’s whimsical paranoias that peak with his own brand of
little ecstasies. Live and recorded music break the trance of highly controlled
incarceration for both the audience and the actors.

The almost barren stage is
electrified with blinding light reminiscent of late Winter afternoons when the
cold sun is focusing on us, making us long for the nostalgic memories of
happier summer days. Lighting designer Joseph Novoa flashes light so bright and
pointed

that we become two sided, shining and
shade, glowing day into ominous night, simple goodness confronting looming
omnipresent evil. We can turn either way hopefully to escape our fates or spin
interminably, not making a commitment to a path. But of course outside prison
the sun always goes down. These formidable beams of light in this hard edge
prison of surreal dreams stay on permanently. There’s no escaping the harsh
glare of surveillance in this human zoo.

Joel Daavid’s set design forced me
via the acting ensemble into a psychic transportation to a beachfront prison
for inappropriately costumed characters. The country that holds them captive is
either too poor for standard uniforms or likes to see beautiful young women
wearing almost nothing as they live, work and play their days and night in this
place where nothing is allowed except what is ruled. Numbers are tattooed on
their shirts or bare backs. Wearing costumes seems to pass the time in
detention as do pop/rock song musical interludes.

Only “K” the newly arrested citizen
is without a number or direction. He wanders into the courtyard of light beams
like a small boy lost in a wild bar filled with sad women. They don’t even
notice him. He’s nobody until he’s either incarcerated or free. Judgment is
limbo on the Gray Beach. Judgment is anxiety and confrontation with the forces
of ultimate uncaring power. His dance leads to the great sacrifice for the
state and his soul. But even that is perverted by the voices of authority. It’s
the topical irony and eternal comedy of frustrated fascism affecting the
feckless individual.

The ensemble company, with admirable,
understated acting and movement skills, endeared me to their plight. I cared
about their horrors and pleasures. Especially Daniela Mandoki, the ‘Accordian
Girl’ who sent shivers down my spine with her deadpan acting, singing voice and
musicianship.

Daniel Damuzi as “K” and Will Rhodes
as The Judge gave well matched comic performances in their dance of judgment.

This normally somber political topic
and its infinite tragic variations is so wildly, enthusiastically acted and
directed that I left the theater with a huge grin. Normally I’d be grudgingly
depressed by yet another reminder of the omniscient, repressive powers that
lurk in the dark holes of cruel bureaucratic governments. Instead Elia
Schneider made me laugh and think differently about the candidly disorganized
human side of that horrendous power. It was well worth my sit down time.